


Do not try me, Devil, Devil

by roblet



Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies), Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Emotional Manipulation, M/M, Post-Battle, Post-Canon, Pre-Canon, when you envision grindelwald think of mads mikkelsen instead of johnny depp, you'll feel a lot better
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-04
Updated: 2017-05-04
Packaged: 2018-10-27 22:29:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 923
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10818066
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/roblet/pseuds/roblet
Summary: So, what happened immediately after Gellert and Albus' famous duel before Grindelwald was finally incarcerated for good? (Both pre and post-canon depending on how you squint.)





	Do not try me, Devil, Devil

"Kill me."

Gellert Grindelwald is on his knees before Albus Dumbledore, his head tipped back toward the sky. His wand is in Albus' hand but he's almost relaxed; he's bleeding and still half-blind and he couldn't stand even if he wanted to. He knows he's not the Elder wand's master any more so there's no need to make a grab for it from the only wizard he's ever feared. Albus is staring at him with those piercing blue eyes and Gellert levels his gaze back at him, grinning with bloodied teeth and making the older wizard look at the renewed damage to his face. The same spot as all those years ago, blood dripping into the eye that Albus had ruined in their duel when they were still teenagers. The eye that Gellert had proceeded to make worse by sacrificing it to the dark arts.

"No," Albus says, in that soft way that he's put on like a cloak since they've parted, "you're going to Nurmengard, Gellert." This absurd gentleness - it's fake, it's ugly, it's not the wizard that Gellert knows. Knew. There's something in Albus' face that's indescribable, an emotion that Gellert has no context for but recognizes.

Gellert laughs suddenly, a harsh bark of a thing that makes some of the people around them, unwilling witnesses, startle and move away. "Albus Dumbledore," Gellert murmurs, somehow finding the wherewithal to pull himself to his feet even though his lungs are screaming from pain and his right leg threatens to buckle under him. He takes a couple of steps closer but it's not threatening. There's very little threat left in Gellert any more. Not in a physical sense, anyway. Even wounded, even beaten, Gellert looms. Gellert menaces. No one expects Albus to flinch. He doesn't.

Not visibly.

Albus exhales just the once a little harsher than normal in this proximity and Gellert knows for sure. Albus Dumbledore is still in love with him. Albus Dumbledore, savior of the people, ender of the global wizarding war, is in love with the man he's been sent to stop. "Merlin's beard," Gellert whispers, "It's been over forty years, Albus." Only they can hear it. Only Gellert can see the flicker in Albus' eyes.

"Yes, Gellert. It's been over forty years. I should have stopped you much sooner." His voice is quiet too and Gellert recognizes the very slight tremor in it. He smiles.

"Could you have, Albus? Could you have faced me, ended it? Or were you too afraid to, thinking that you'd come back where you belong? We could have done so much together, Albus. Been so much." His hand lifts heedless of the people watching them and touches Albus' shoulder. "You say that power doesn't suit you but your fear is that it suits you too much."

Albus smiles, but it's strained. "That's where we differ, Gellert. You embraced the danger of power and I turned my back on it." So many of the people around them don't understand Gellert like Albus does. They think him evil, purposely malicious, a self-built terror. Albus knows better that Gellert is something worse: he doesn't care. He doesn't understand the concept of good and evil, the reasons why people can't just do whatever it takes to get their goals. Gellert is a tyrant but he is not one on _purpose_. Often Albus wonders if he could have kept Gellert on a leash tight enough to prevent things but he knows that isn't really the case. That Gellert would have continued, would have simply drawn Albus into the dark with him.

"Do you think me a monster, Albus?" Gellert's canted his head aside but the movement almost makes him topple. Without thinking, Albus grabs his arm and keeps him upright. They both stare down at the point of contact unmoving, but Gellert looks back up first. "Clearly something in you doesn't." His voice is dangerously seductive as it always is and he's practically whispering in the older wizard's ear now. "But most of you does. You're in love with a monster that doesn't understand emotions, Albus. Someone who can never return your feelings the way you need him to." He sucks in a breath, wishing to bury his face in red hair, to claim Albus as his own again, but he doesn't. Can't. "But I do need you, and isn't that enough?"

Albus has stiffened and Gellert presses on, hand grasping at Albus' robes to yank him closer. They're both about to collapse even with pure stubbornness keeping them standing. "If you've ever loved me," Gellert hisses suddenly, "then kill me. It would be more merciful from kind Albus Dumbledore than what you suggest."

"That's the problem, Gellert." Albus is smiling again and there's something almost dangerous there. Gellert sucks in a breath. "The problem is that by your side, I've never been merciful or kind. Look where I am now."

There's a moment where Gellert stares at Albus, genuinely startled, eyes wide. Then he lets out a crowing laugh, shoulders shaking as he drops to his knees again, supporting himself with one hand. When he looks up at Albus from the ground his expression is wild and beautiful, the all-consuming wild fire he was born to be. "That's the Albus I know," he says, bright like the sun, merry as a teen. "Thank you for letting me see him again."

Even as the Aurors arrive to take Gellert to his new home in a cell in Nurmengard, he's smiling. Albus can't help but think he's just lost.


End file.
